Warrior Mine: A Base Branch novel Read online

  “I love you too, Momma,” she yawned.

  Carmen sipped the warm liquid and coddled her daughter. Degree by slow degree Sophia’s tense muscles relaxed. She stretched from her fetal ball, shoving her legs across Vail’s thighs. He smiled, tucked the cover around her exposed feet, and drank from his mug.

  By the time Sophia settled and her breaths came long and even, Carmen’s cup sat half full—from her current way of thinking. She set it to the side with the other cup and cut her gaze to Vail. He stared into the fire. As she watched his expression marbled from brooding to happy, and back again.

  She shifted her legs toward him, Sophia not so much as stirring. Openly, she eyed him. Her heart jacked from her sternum to her throat. Once. Twice. She swallowed.

  Time to go for broke.

  “Do you want my help with Carlos or my body more?”

  He took another swig from his mug and continued to stare. Maybe she hadn’t said the words she’d intended. Maybe her brain intervened with what her body—and her heart—wanted, and hadn’t let the right words escape. Because one way or another she expected a reaction from him.

  Her cheeks had to be fire-engine red by the time he finally turned his head and accosted her with his gaze.

  “Your help with Carlos…” her heart pitched “…should be my priority.” She blinked and stared, transfixed by his flexing jaw. “But what I want more than reason is you, Carmen. Not just your body. All of you.” Her mind obviously toyed with her, but she could have sworn his gaze dropped to Sophia. Before she knew it, those intense eyes were on her again. “Every last part of you.”

  Vail placed his coffee cup on the floor. The muscles in his back and arms toyed with her pitiful excuse for self-control. He sat back and eyed her. “So tell me, what is it you want, Carmen?”

  “I want Sophia to be safe.” He nodded. “And I don’t think she could be safer than when she’s with you.” Carmen took a deep breath to continue, but he cut her off.

  “I’ll recommend you a top-notch body guard.” Though his tone slashed with animosity, he cradled Sophia’s feet like a newborn as he rose from the sofa. He settled her and stood.

  “Wait,” she begged.

  “It’s fine, Carmen. You have noble priorities. Other kids should be so lucky. I’m going to shower. Watch her for a while longer. I’m sure she’s fine, but her wellbeing is the most important thing here,” he said without malice. “I’ll carry her to bed after I’m finished.” Then, as if the coffee gave him super speed, he hurried to the stairs and took them two at a time.

  Oh. Hell. No.

  26

  “You didn’t even let me finish,” Carmen bellowed over the spray.

  This woman had the ability to catch him with his pants around his ankles every damn time. “Well you hardly let me finish either,” he muttered.

  “What?”

  Vail stepped under the steaming water. It sluiced over his head, shoulders, and chest, rinsing the soap and remnants of the brush with death from his body. He lifted his head from the raining droplets. His gaze locked with Carmen’s through the dingy shower door. One hand slid across his chest, while the other gripped his still-throbbing shaft. Stroking his fully erect cock, he openly removed the sticky evidence of his lust for her and the too quick, too impersonal declaration of life he'd made with his fist and carnal images of her in his mind.

  Her pretty mouth hung in an O. The flame red had returned full strength in her cheeks. How a stone-cold woman like Carmen could blush clear to her bones was yet another mystery he’d never solve. She held a sheet of paper in one hand and clutched the towel wrapped around her body in the other. In his fantasy, she’d dropped the towel and joined him, eagerly twining her legs around his waist and accepting every hard inch of him. The white of her knuckles said that was fiction written, edited, and published in his fantasies. Not reality.

  “So, finish,” he challenged.

  Her lips all but curled into a knot. “All of me, huh? Seems you took only the physical to shower with you.”

  “You won’t give me anything else. You won’t give me anything at all.”

  “I had to know,” she shouted. “I had to know whether all I was to you was a convenient source of information.”

  “Convenient?” Irritation raised his voice, something he rarely experienced. “Nothing about you is convenient. Seducing. Dangerous. Enthralling. Irritating. But not convenient.”

  “Well, I’m sorry I can’t just spread my legs for you like all the others. You may not think highly of me, but I’m not a whore.”

  Rage nearly lifted him off his feet. This woman got to him in ways that scared him piss-less. He’d never been angry with a woman. Upset, yes. But not roaring mad. He swiveled and flung the shower door wide so she wouldn’t miss a word.

  “There are no others. There is no one else. When my wife died she took my heart with her to the grave, and it’s never stirred for anyone else. Until you. You, Goddammit.” He viced his head in his hands, and if his hair were longer he’d have pulled it out. “I deal with difficult shit every day. Life and death, and evil. I know good when I see it, Carmen, and I'm staring right at it. If you can’t see that, fine. We all have our own demons to carry on our backs or slay. Do with yours what you will, but don’t for one minute think I see you as anything other than what you are—devoted, and as beautiful on your walled-off inside as you are on the outside.”

  Her mouth did the gape and shut thing for several seconds, but not a word left her lips. He couldn’t stand in front of her for another minute without ripping the towel from her grip, pinning her to the wall, and driving into her. And if he did, she’d come, and then hate him for treating her like an object only for pleasure. He yanked the towel from the rack and skirted her, heading for the door, not even taking the time to wrap it around his body.

  “Shower’s all yours. I’ll get dressed and carry Sophia to her bed.”

  She didn’t speak, but she thrust the paper into his hand. It crinkled under his furious grip. He charged through the door and down the hallway to the bedroom where he’d slept the last few nights. Managing not to rattle the door off its hinges took restraint that only came from a lifetime of training. He flung the towel and paper onto the neatly made bed and ground his fists against his forehead.

  “Son-of-a-fucking-bitch,” he growled at himself more than anyone. He was a big picture guy. A cool, collected planner. So, why the hell couldn’t he see past Carmen and Sophie?

  Because he’d never wanted anything since he’d failed Ellie. Guts in a ball, he collapsed onto the bed. Water beaded across his skin, pooled and dripped at random onto the sheets. The comforter was downstairs, warming Sophie. No matter his horny irritation with Carmen, and himself, he needed to go check on Sophie.

  He lay there, seeking his steely calm. He found resignation, bitter and ashy in his mouth. A huff blew through his lips. Like any good soldier, he forged on, shoving from the bed. He yanked the towel so forcefully it cracked the air. The dry fabric troubled his freshly shaven face. While he blotted the rest of his body he glared at the crumpled ball of white paper on the backdrop of ugly green flannel sheets. By the time he finished dressing he could have been classified a gawker.

  What the hell did she have to say that she couldn’t just say? Speak, as in words? He shoved forward on bare feet, dropped the towel, and snatched the note. Creases polluted every inch, but the information on it was plain enough to see. On one side, she’d diagramed the Ruez estate in Baja California Sur and the facilities in Ensenada and Hermosillo. She’d noted guard schedules, locations, and cargo housed for each site. He flipped the paper and his jaw plummeted.

  Bank accounts, maybe fifty, were listed in tiny print. For each she’d scrawled the names of the banks, amounts in each, routing, and account numbers. Carlos’s army roster took up the bottom half of the page. Names, ranks, and posts were detailed.

  Jesus.

  No wonder Carlos had been so desperate to keep her. She held the keys to hi
s empire in her beautiful brain. And the rat bastard had extorted her one weakness to gain her cooperation.

  Carmen had given him everything he needed to protect his people and take down Carlos Ruez. But… She hadn’t given him what he wanted most.

  To keep from stewing and reigniting the anger that shot through his veins like a drug, he laid the page on the bed, snapped pictures of the front and back, and sent it to Khani with a message. “Carmen Ruez shot me, then saved me, and now she’s saving our asses. Get our people in and out. Double time, before they blow.”

  She responded, “Well, fuck. Yes, sir.”

  He carried the smirk from Khani’s colorfully blunt response down the stairs. When he reached Sophie’s side and the covers rose and fell gently his mouth widened. With a bend and scoop he hugged her close. Those long lashed didn’t even flutter. She weighed next to nothing now that his muscles weren’t frozen to his bones. He toted her up the steps and settled her onto the twin bed where she’d sat days ago and had that frank and fearless conversation with him. She’d had every right to be afraid, but had shown the instincts of a seasoned warrior. He didn’t wish that life for her. Her future should be filled with peace and love. Not battle.

  “Don’t scare me like that again, kiddo.” He kissed her hair. His heart squeezed. Carlos was about to be a powerless schmuck and they were free to start anew. Without him.

  Anger flared high and hideous in his chest. Icy impassivity used to keep him warm at night. He guessed rage would do from now on.

  Quietly, he slunk from Sophie’s room, past the open bathroom door, past Carmen’s closed door, down the hall to his cubical. Because he was, in fact, at work. Nothing personal here.

  But…there was something very personal on his bed.

  27

  “Vail,” Carmen’s voice quavered. She hated the way she shook. Not many things in the world scared her, but this… She tucked her legs beneath her in the middle of his bed. It hid more of her bare bottom and the small tuft of hair at the juncture of her thighs, but it didn’t do anything to cover her heavy breasts or peaked nipples.

  Anger clouded around him like a force field. He took one step into the room and closed the door, but his expression remained tight. Her heart quaked in her chest. She smashed her palms together and refused to believe this had been a mistake, though her stomach disagreed.

  “What in the—”

  She held up her hand, and, damn-it-all, her boobs jiggled. “No. You’ve talked over me twice tonight, and I have something to say.”

  His lips pursed and one brow slanted in a mean line.

  “I want to give you everything…but I’m terrified. I’ve only ever presented myself in such a bold manner once in my life. Then it had nothing to do with the man, but the baby I desperately wanted.”

  His hard edges softened. “And now?”

  “And now,” she licked her lips, “it has everything to do with you. And the need you stir inside me.”

  He let loose a long breath, nearly a growl. His wide chest puffed and his hands fisted at his side. “What exactly are you here to give me, Carmen?”

  “For now, my body.” She couldn’t tell him he’d already made gains on her heart. There was too much at stake for that.

  She wanted him in return, but she didn’t have the nerve to ask. She suspected she’d never get him. He held himself back. His joy and his anger were neat and tidy. Too ordered to be given freely. But she wanted whatever he would give.

  And it seemed he wanted whatever she gave.

  He stalked to the edge of the bed, the heat of his gaze smothering and raw. “Are you sure, Carmen?” His hand latched around her nape. Then he pulled her forward. She rose and scooted on her knees to the edge of the bed. The possessive action, and his mouth so close to her own, stole her self-consciousness. Her attention wrapped in the nuances of his features. “Once I claim your body, it’ll be mine. You’ll find it will no longer heed your commands. It will be waiting for mine.”

  “I don’t follow easily,” she whispered.

  One hot finger coasted from her chin, down the side of her neck, and then over the mound of her breast. Her body leaned into the touch as if his finger were a magnet tugging her desire to the surface. She gasped. He slid it over her hip. Her breath quickened and her body came alive with tingling heat. A sensation all too new and overwhelming flamed in her folds. That sweet finger dipped between her legs, arching around her sensitive flesh, and then slipped down the inside of her thigh to her knee.

  “No, you don’t. And I don’t issue orders. Not with my voice. Which will make this even sweeter.” His lips skated over hers. The moisture of his breath clung to her mouth. The errant contact sparked the flame of her need.

  “What?”

  “Watching you crumble under my touch. Only to be built up stronger than ever by your reaction.”

  She expected his kiss, an assault on her mouth that would topple the awesomeness of the one they’d shared, or nearly shared. But he released his hold on her neck and dropped to his knees before her. His face reached near-perfect eye level with her crotch. Yet, he gave her no time to fret. Those large hands gripped the inside of her thighs and urged them wide.

  Shamelessly, her body obliged, spreading wide and displaying her intimate flesh. His wide palms caressed her inner thigh in long, slow sweeps. They made their way to the tops of her legs, slid around back, and then he clamped her ample thigh. Her lips parted at the surprise contact.

  He leaned in, placing his nose so close to her vagina it tickled the close cropped, almost nonexistent patch of hair between her legs. His chest expanded as he deliberately inhaled her scent. A groan rumbled. His eyes closed. His head arched. The view robbed her of breath. Her kneeling and him kneeling before her. He rolled his neck, spread his knees a bit, and lowered. Then he was back, his mouth dangerously close to her skin.

  He tilted his head, opened his eyes, and caught her gaze, while his tongue extended toward her aching flesh. She should feel uncomfortable, but she only felt what he made her feel. Sexy. Needy. Yearning. Carmen moaned at the long, flat swipe. It slid across her lips and abraded her already-swollen clit.

  “This body is already mine. It responds too easily to have ever belonged to another man.”

  There were words on her lips, but they fell away. His fingers sank into her skin, holding her in place while he shoved his face into her folds. Electricity tipped his tongue. Its lashing contact assaulted her receptive nub, charging her craving. Her breath came faster and until she was panting. Her body flushed.

  Solitude struck her square in the chest. She hadn’t braced for the blindsiding punch of loneliness.

  Carmen held her breath as Vail lapped expertly between her folds. She swiped at the tear that had no cause to fall down her cheek, though it did. Had she expected him to make love to her when love was not what crackled between them?

  Foolishly, she had. And yet, the sensations driving her hard toward a wall she’d never crested, didn’t cease. They compounded to an unbearable weight.

  She wanted this. But she wanted it…differently. With emotion. With a connection. Not a means to an end.

  His hands freed her legs. She should move away. Distance herself from the overwhelming phenomenon. But his hands slid around front, between her legs. He cupped her bottom, braced her thighs on his forearms, and stood. She was suspended in mid-air by his brute strength. The chiseled rock of his shoulders glistened with sweat. He took two quick steps with his lips firmly sealed around her clit. Cold wall met her back and she bowed, shoving her lady bits farther onto his ravenous mouth.

  Cupping her ass, he held her up to his face as he ate. His fingers bit into her cheeks. He pierced her with his tongue. Carmen’s head lolled back, hitting the wall with a quiet thud. She was trapped. Unable to escape the beautiful torment he wrought, she braced her hands on the ceiling and gave in. Her hips bucked. Every nerve ending in her body convulsed. And she cried in unbearable pleasure and inexplicable pain.


  Where Vail’s emotions were neatly pressed, his lust boasted total abandon. Which was almost too much to endure.

  28

  His imagination had done her a grave injustice. She tasted too sweet. So good that he’d lost himself between her legs. Her cry and the sweet cream it induced only aggravated his wild hunger. His cock pulsed with the need to be inside her.

  He lapped at her one last time—for now—before sliding her to his hips. One hand on the button of his pants, he froze. She’d trapped her lips between her teeth and tears stained her beautiful face.

  “Carmen, what’s wrong? Did I hurt you? I…I’m sorry. I…”

  Her damp curls wavered slightly with her denial. But her nose twitched and she hid her face in the crook of his neck. Her sadness punched him in the balls, making quick work of his raging need. He carried her to the bed with wholly different intentions than he’d had seconds earlier.

  Vail sat on the edge of the firm mattress with her arms and legs coiling his torso, scooted to the headboard, and leaned back. “We’re done, honey.”

  She jerked back at that, her brows narrowed.

  “I’m not going to make you do anything you don’t want to do. I’d never hurt you. Not intentionally.” He moved the hair from her face. “I’ll let you go, if that’s what you want, but before you go I need to know what’s wrong.”

  She bit back a sob that threatened to break his heart, and then mended it by tackling him in a fierce hug. He held her tightly against his chest. When she seemed content to stay there, he gathered her hair to one side and gently caressed the length of her back.

  As driven as he’d been to pound himself into her, he was nearly as content to hold her. In a way, maybe even more so. Shared comfort lasted longer, went further than shared flesh.